Many paralegals have daydreamed about breaking the
chains to the desk and becoming self-employed, contract paralegals.
Some have actually done it. But very few have then taken that dream,
magnified it and turned it into something bigger — their own
business. LAT visited four pioneering women who created and now lead
thriving freelance paralegal firms. Some have employees, others use
subcontractors. Some work for law firms, others have government
contracts or work for corporations. One has even taken her business
nationwide, becoming the first paralegal to sell franchises. Their
stories are an inspiration to paralegals who have hopes of making it
big on their own.

Shawn Olley

Midwest Paralegal Services, Inc.

Midwest Imaging

Milwaukee

Number of Employees: 35 Year
Business Started: 1989

Q: What do you look for in paralegal
employees?

A: Experience in litigation and aptitude
with computers. Employees also need to be able to adapt to
different work environments.

Q: How do you handle conflicts of
interest?

A: If the proposed work conflicts with
an ongoing client, we refuse the work and provide an
explanation. If the conflict involves a matter we
are no longer actively working on, we contact the
client to see if he or she will provide a letter
releasing us from the conflict. We advise both sides
so that if someone wants to opt out, he or she
can before any work is completed.

Q: What is your best marketing tip?

A: Be consistent with logos and
focus on service.

Q: What advice would you give to those
starting their own paralegal business?

A: Have a good experience base that you
can bring to the table.

Q: Where do you see your paralegal
business in five years?

A: Continuing to expand in the area of computers
and the integral part that industry-stylized
software plays in the practice of law. Keeping
current on resources and efficiencies is a daunting
task with the speed in which e-productions are
advancing.

In 1982, Shawn Olley received her Paralegal
Certificate of Completion from RooseveltUniversity, Chicago
after receiving her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from University of Wisconsin,
Eau Claire. In
2005, she was selected as one of the Top Ten Women in Law by the
Wisconsin Law Journal. Just what happened in those ensuing years
that enabled her rise to such prominence?

Olley was happily employed as a litigation
paralegal at the Milwaukee firm of Mulcahy
& Wherry for three years and had a total of eight years of
para­legal experience when the idea of launching her own business
first came to her. She was contacted by an attorney she used to work
for who asked for her help with a large project. It occurred to her
that freelancing out paralegal work would be a good business idea,
but she was too busy working for the firm to pursue it. Shortly
after, a coworker told Olley about a large group of paralegals in
the Milwaukee
area who were thinking of forming a work co-op. The group’s vision
was to combine the paralegals’ experience and provide comprehensive
paralegal services. Over time, people backed out of the co-op,
leaving only Olley and a coworker at Mulcahy, Claudia Resnick
Butcher. They shook hands and got to work.

In 1989, Olley and Butcher each chipped in $100
and opened Midwest Paralegal Services. They worked out of their
homes the first year and leased computers to keep costs down. They
quickly landed their first client, a corporation whose in-house
legal department needed help with a large environmental case. The
case kept them working while they started building their client base
by word of mouth. “After the first year, we were so busy we hired
another paralegal,” Olley said. Another big break came when Mulcahy
& Wherry closed its doors in 1990 and the scattered attorneys became
resources in multiple locations.

At first, Midwest
stayed in the litigation area because, as Olley explained, “It lent
itself so beautifully to the contract model.” Although litigation is
still its bread and butter, Midwest now has 35 employees in all areas of practice from
mergers and acquisitions to intellectual property to product
liability, labor and employment, and estate planning. Five of the
employees are full-time IT/imaging and systems support
professionals. The company increased its number of employees over
time and as cases demanded paralegals with diverse backgrounds.
Olley has always insisted on hiring employees, not subcontracting
the work out. “I wanted my paralegals to work just for me and not
have other side businesses, which would create a risk of conflicts.”

As their business grew, their office space also
expanded. After the first year, Midwest moved to an office that was
500 square feet in downtown
Milwaukee. In 2002, Midwest purchased a
13,000-square foot, old police department building in
Oak Creek, Wis., just
outside of Milwaukee.

In 2001, frustrated by imaging services that
wreaked havoc on carefully organized document productions, Olley
formed a new division of the company called Midwest Imaging which
handles scanning and imaging of documents, OCR and electronic Bates
numbering. “We wanted to keep the document imaging in-house for
quality control,” Olley said. “Midwest Imaging also created great
diversification of our business during the times that the paralegal
work is slow.” All of Midwest’s
employees are cross-trained in both divisions. Recently, with the
increased focus on electronic documents, Midwest Imaging began a
computer forensics service.

Olley belongs to the Paralegal Association of
Wisconsin and the Madison Area Paralegal Association. “Networking is
always helpful,” she said. Also a certified CT Summation trainer and
consultant, Olley splits her time 50-50 between administrative and
paralegal work. “I hired an office manager to take on the tasks of
billing and human resources, and I am still very involved in some of
the larger clients’ work,” she said. Midwest Paralegal opened a
Madison, Wis., office in July 2005, and with the
advent of e-discovery, Olley only sees growth ahead for the
business.

Stella Brady Cureton

Brady & Associates

Santa Fe, N.M.

Number of Employees: 4 Year
Business Started: 2001

Q: What do you look for in paralegal
employees?

A: Honesty, attention to detail,
reliability, computer skills, flexibility and the ability to relate
to people.

Q: How do you handle conflicts of
interest?

A: I find out the names of all parties
of a case I have been asked to work on and run a computer check on
my system of parties with whom I have previously been involved.

Q: What is your best marketing tip?

A: When I started my business back in
2001, I made up a brochure and sent it out to all law firms in
the area to let them know I was going into
business for myself.

Q: What advice would you give to those
starting their own paralegal business?

A: Know that you might not make enough money for at least six
months or more to pay your bills, so
you need to have a cash reserve of at least that
much. Also, think about insurance, self-
employment tax, getting certified by the city to
run your own business. You also must have the
funds to buy all your own supplies and computers.
If you live in an area where you are not well-
known as a paralegal, it will be even more
difficult to start your own business, so I would not
recommend moving to a new town to begin this
venture.

Stella Brady Cureton began her paralegal career in
the early 1980s at the attorney general’s office in New Mexico. She was hired as a legal
secretary in 1966, and in the 1980s the position evolved into that
of para­legal. She primarily worked in the Special Prosecutions
Division assisting with Medicaid fraud, white-collar crime and large
antitrust cases. A secondary task, which turned out to be key in
later years, was that of records manager, handling document control
and organizing files for the Civil and Appeals Divisions.

In 1985, Cureton turned to the private sector,
working in several New
Mexico
law firms. She broadened her background to include complex
litigation, oil and gas, corporate, personal injury, medical
malpractice and collections, and she assisted out-of-state clients
with filings before the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission.
In 2001, health reasons prevented Cureton from putting in a full
day’s work.
“I felt badly that I could not give my employer my all,” Cureton
said, so she resigned from her position and opened up a freelance
business from her home, working when she could.

For the first few years, Cureton worked on a
contract basis for one of the firm’s existing clients — a large
credit union. “It was a nice transition,” she said. Over time, she
added other law firms where she had established contacts. One day,
she spotted an advertisement in the newspaper for a paralegal to
work for a large state agency. Cureton applied for the position,
hoping that she could talk the agency into hiring her as a part-time
contract paralegal. She got an interview and the agency was
impressed. “Unfortunately, they had their heart set on a full-time
position and turned down my offer,” Cureton said. Her luck changed a
few weeks later when she received a call from the agency.
“They told me they had interviewed all the other candidates and I
was the most qualified,” she said. “They agreed to all of my terms.”

That original professional service agreement
shortly turned into a lucrative four-year contract, organizing 60 to
70 years’ worth of historical records that had been placed
haphazardly over time in a basement. “I was asked to create a
records management system for these documents,” Cureton explained.
“I had to organize and Bates number them, get them ready to be
scanned, and prepare them for indexing into a [LexisNexis]
Concordance database with the hope of eventually turning them over
to the State Records and Archives Department for safekeeping.”

Cureton assembled a group of helpers, locating
and training seven people to perform administrative duties.
Cureton’s subcontractors combed through the records, removed
duplicates, copied and scanned them, and began the coding. The
project was so big, she was forced to drop her other law firm
clients.

This project is now winding down, and Cureton
has been requested to prepare a proposal to handle another project
for the same client involving scanning, indexing and abstracting a
library of technical documents.

Cureton’s subcontractors are paid using the
money brought in by the contracts with the clients. The
subcontractors don’t work for others, so potential conflicts of
interest are limited. She plans on using subcontractors for future
projects as well.

“There is so much freedom in having your own
business,” Cureton said. “You are the expert, the problem solver,
and your creative juices get to flow so much more when you have the
freedom to figure out a solution.” Cureton still works out of her
home and belongs to the State Bar of New Mexico Paralegal Division.

Dorothy Secol, CLA

Paralegal Services USA

Allenhurst, N.J.

Number of Employees: 2 Year
Business Started: 1986

Q: What do you look for in paralegal
employees?

A: Professional appearance, proper
telephone skills, ability to get along with others and good skills
in
whatever area of substantive law we are hiring
in, as well as the ability to handle pressure and
learn quickly.

Q: How do you handle conflicts of
interest?

A: We log in all files, naming the
parties so that we are able to check when new matters come in.
We have, on occasion, declined to work on matters
that involved clients from previous cases. Our
attorney clients have always been appreciative
and understanding.

Q: What is your best marketing tip?

A: Our monthly newsletter is faxed to an
attorney list. The newsletter covers different areas of
substantive law or law office management tips.

Q: What advice would you give to those
starting their own paralegal business?

A: You must be strong enough to
persevere. You must have thick skin and not get discouraged; it
takes time to build a clientele. You must stay
up-to-date with all changes in the law and practice
and know your craft well.

Q: Where do you see your paralegal
business in five years?

A: Going forward with the national franchise business.

Dorothy Secol is used to being on the cutting edge.
She sat for the National Association of Legal Assistants’ Certified
Legal Assistant examination in 1978, when there were only 133 CLAs
in the country (now there are more than 12,000). Once she passed the
exam, she worked for a sole practitioner in
Asbury Park,
N.J. It was this job that taught
her different areas of substantive law, in part because she attended Institute of Continuing Legal Education seminars and
Practising Law Institute seminars for attorneys with her boss. In
1980, armed with just a few years of experience, her CLA credential
and an associate’s degree from MonmouthCollege in
New Jersey, Secol began her freelance
paralegal business. The idea of paralegals was still new, so “when I
pitched my idea to the attorneys I knew, most of them thought I was
crazy,” she recalled. “People nowadays are more used to
outsourcing.”

Secol eased into self-employment, working part
time for a sole practitioner while renting an office from him the
rest of the time to build her freelance business. In 1985, she
contacted another freelance paralegal she knew, Peggy Stalford, and
asked if she wanted to join forces. “I did real estate, probate,
personal injury and corporate work, and Peggy did family law,
personal injury and bankruptcy. I felt the two practices
complemented each other,” Secol said. Secol and Stalford have been
partners for 20 years.

In 1995, Secol wrote “Starting and Managing Your
Own Business: A Freelancing Guide for Paralegals” (John Wiley/Aspen
Press). The book was supplemented in 2000. “People called me about
this book all the time,” Secol said. “It started me thinking about
whether there was a way to franchise a paralegal business.” Secol
and Stalford started talking about the concept. “We realized that
paralegals know how to do paralegal work, but not necessarily how to
be entrepreneurs.”

Secol and Stalford attended a franchising
seminar in New York in 2004 and were
encouraged by the speakers. They hired a franchise attorney and
started working on all the documents required by the regulatory
agencies, such as disclosure statements and agreements. On Aug. 1,
2006, they launched their Paralegal Services USA franchise Web site
and got a tremendous response. “We have gotten more than 100
inquiries, one application has been signed and another is on the
way,” Secol said. “We are very charged by this.”

Paralegal Services USA provides its franchisees
with information on technology and marketing methods by using a
password-protected online operations manual with information on
timekeeping, compensation, billing, hiring employees, conflicts of
interest and negotiating a lease. Franchisees will receive
continuing support, training, networking and preferred vendor
discounts. An initial franchise costs $15,000, and the term of the
franchise is 10 years. “We really want para­legals to achieve their
dreams of owning their own businesses in a profession they love,”
Secol said. Not just anyone can purchase a franchise, though.
“Applicants must have a paralegal degree or certificate and at least
three years of experience before they will qualify,” Secol
explained.

Over the years, Stalford and Secol have stayed
involved in the paralegal profession. Secol belongs to NALA and they
both belong to the Legal Assistant Association of New Jersey. Secol
explained how these memberships support her business: “When I was
researching the idea of freelancing, I contacted NALA. There were
very few freelance paralegals at that time, and NALA was very
supportive of the idea. They gave me advice as to the ethical
ramifications [of freelancing], and I was very careful to always
represent my legal assistant status to everyone I talked to.”

In 1990, the New Jersey Supreme Court
Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee issued an opinion that said
the use of freelance paralegals was tantamount to UPL. Secol called
her attorney and with Stalford became the petitioners in the case of
In re Opinion 24 of the Committee on the Unauthorized Practice of
Law, 128 N.J. 114 (1992), which ultimately overruled the opinion.
Both NALA and LAANJ filed amicus curiae briefs on behalf of Secol
and Stalford.

Looking back, Secol is amazed at the ground she
has covered in the last 35 years. “When we started this, it was
never with a vision of a grand business,” she says. “It kept us busy
and brought in money.” Once she and Stalford made the decision to
grow, they hired a business coach who helped them set and meet their
goals. He gave them the idea of a monthly newsletter that now goes
out to about 1,000 attorneys. “Once you have been your own boss
there is no going back to a regular job,” Secol said.

Lee Davis, AACP

Lee Davis & Associates

Phoenix

Number of Employees: Depends on Project
Year Business Started: 1989

Q: What do you look for in paralegal
employees?

A: Education first — at least a
bachelor’s degree; then experience, depending on the project. Having
said that, I have hired paralegals right out of
school and trained them for specific projects.

Q: How do you handle conflicts of
interest?

A: The contract paralegals must comply
with the individual firm’s conflicts check.

Q: What is your best marketing tip?

A: Networking is invaluable. Join local
and national paralegal associations, state or county bar
organizations, write articles and present
seminars. Also, develop a Web site that highlights your
services.

Q: What advice would you give to those
starting their own paralegal business?

A: Do your homework up front. Know who
your competition is and develop a niche. Have at least
three months’ income in the bank to soften those
lean times. I would also suggest some good,
solid law firm experience under your belt.

Q: Where do you see your paralegal
business in five years?

A: I would like to hold steady on the projects, develop a
trial team to build the trial assistance end of
the business and then start turning the business
over to my daughter, who also is a paralegal.

Instead of diversifying, Lee Davis created her very
successful niche in Phoenix
by becoming specialized in complex litigation, large document case
management and multimedia presentations.

Davis began her
paralegal career in 1979, attending the paralegal program at PhoenixCollege.
She then earned her bachelor’s degree in business management from ArizonaStateUniversity.
She got her first taste of what it could be like to earn money from
subcontracting while working on a large case in 1985 for the firm
Allen, Kimerer and LaVelle. Her firm asked her to find an outside
person to help with the documents. Davis found a friend who
could do the work and billed her friend out to the firm at an extra
$1.50 an hour, keeping the difference.

By 1986,
Davis
was able to start a freelance business on the side, and in
1989, she started doing contract work full time. She worked both out
of her home and through her firm’s office. Davis contacted every attorney she had ever
dealt with to get clients. She spread the word to other paralegals
and received many referrals by doing so. “I knew that I could not
make the kind of money I wanted to make as an employee,”
Davis
said. “I had to go out on my own.”
Davis’ business took off so quickly, she
scrapped plans to go to law school.

Davis
purchased software that she thought would be useful to her clients,
including a program that was the precursor to Summation. She
answered an advertisement in the newspaper for someone who was
familiar with that program. At first, the firm was not interested in
hiring a contract paralegal, but six months later they changed their
minds, and Davis
was hired. Though she had done some freelance work before, this was
her first big client. “This client gave me the security and
flexibility to market my business,”
Davis said.

Davis’
first big project involved helping a corporation prepare for a
merger by gathering all the documents needed by government
regulators. The volume of documents was so massive that she had to
arrange shifts of workers, mostly paralegals and attorneys, from 7
a.m. to midnight. The workers were either contractors or hired
through an agency. “We produced nearly 1 million pages in only three
weeks and I made $25,000,”
Davis
said.

Davis
is a firm believer in the team approach to jobs. “When I go to the
client’s office for the initial meeting,” she said, “I take with me
the paralegal who is going to be the case manager there, so they can
meet both of us.” Paralegals are subcontracted on a project basis,
so the number of paralegals working with Davis fluctuates. Davis bills for the case
manager’s time for this meeting, but not her own. She works a case
for the first four to six months to become familiar with it while
bringing in additional people, and then moves on to the next case.
“This way, I am familiar with the case,”
Davis
said, “and if a problem develops, I am in a good position to solve
it.” The team approach is also useful to cover for paralegals who
become ill or move away.

“I have had both employees and contract
paralegals,” Davis said. “There are
advantages and disad­vantages to both.” She urges anyone starting a
business to seek advice from a tax professional on the model that
would work best. Davis recruits alumni from the local paralegal
schools
for her subcontractors. She will even train a promising new
graduate.

In the boom years of database entry for document
control, Davis had as many as 60 subcontractors going at once and
grossed nearly $1 million per year. However, the advent and
improvement of OCR software and
e-discovery have made database entry increasingly a thing of the
past. “An­other thing that really hurt us is that large legal
support companies are sending their coding work offshore at a
fraction of the cost,” Davis said.

Davis has added trial consulting to her arsenal
of services, either acting as a liaison with outside vendors or
working with the in-house trial team. She and her subcontractors are
proficient with inData’s TrialDirector and Verdict Systems’ Sanction
trial presentation software, and can help design presentations and
operate the equipment in the courtroom.

To stay competitive, Davis recommends staying in
touch with every attorney from every firm you have ever worked with.
Also, don’t forget about opposing counsel. “If I became familiar
with the attorney on the other side of a case, I would not hesitate
to contact him for work once the case was over,” she said. “Working
for yourself is such a wonderful way to expand your earning
opportunities while doing work you love.”

For these four women, the benefits of being self-employed have
far outweighed the pressures of owning a business. The flexibility
and freedom, the opportunity for higher income, the ability to
choose which attorneys they work with and the challenge of being
their own boss were what these para­legals sought and got. And there
are unexpected perks, too. As Secol points out, “You command a
tremendous amount of respect from attorneys. They treat you more
like an equal because you are a fellow business­person.” And we
could all use a little more of that.

Stacey Hunt, CLA, CAS, is a freelance paralegal in
the
San Luis Obispo, Calif., area. She is the co-author of “Hot
Docs and Smoking Guns: Managing Document Production and Document
Organization” (Clark, Board­man, Callaghan, 1994) and “The
Successful Paralegal Job Search Guide” (West, 2000). Hunt taught
legal writing and ethics for the para­legal studies program at
CaliforniaPolytechnicStateUniversity in San Luis Obispo, and is a past president of
the California Alliance of Paralegal Associations. She is working on
a new book for Delmar Publishing on evidence management for
paralegals, due out in July 2007.